What is play? Play is creation. Children create their own worlds through storytelling and playing pretend. Oryx and Crake is the story of a family of African Antelope and their best buddies, a family of birds. The symbiotic relationship between the oryx and crake inspired this set of wooden stacking blocks. I wanted to tell the story of their friendship to children; who have a natural affection and curiosity for the animal kingdom.

 

My process began with heuristic clay models, where I was drawn to the action of stacking. After I decided on my three breeds of antelope; oryx, gerenuk, and dik dik, I sketched them in order to hone in on the essence of each one. Finally I prototyped in wood and developed the nine interlocking piece set, made up of three birds, three horns, and three bodies.